Nebraska Football
Postgame Quotes vs. Iowa
Nov. 28, 2025 (Lincoln, Neb.)
Iowa 40, Nebraska 16

Opening Statement
“I certainly understand how that feels to all the great fans we have, the student section was full, people came to the game. I understand their disappointment, I understand our team's disappointment. I think when you end the season the way we have the last two games, it has to rest solely on me. I love this team, I love everything about them. I certainly didn’t think today would go that way. I thought we came out ready to play and in the end they were the better football team. I don’t shirk that I own that, I'm responsible for it. I understand that times like this can get a little bit negative. Honestly, that should all be directed to me, I don’t want the players to panic, it shouldn't go towards them, I think it has to fall on me. We want to be a team that gets better at the end of the year and these last two games have not been that. I take that, I own that and I’ll answer all your questions.”

On inability to score in the red zone
“That really was the story in the first half. We had 186 yards rushing; we just out rushed Iowa. We had 186 yards rushing in the first half. They were able to score touchdowns whereas we scored field goals. That was the issue, and if we’re being honest that’s been the issue most of the year. We’re not winning the red zone touchdown battle. If we hold them to a couple of field goals there the game is different. Even at the end it’s 40 to whatever and go down hoping to make it 40 to 24 and we fumble in the red zone. But certainly it’s an early start. We had a couple chances to make some plays and we didn’t quite make the plays and they did a good job of making some plays.”

On defense not being prepared
“To me today was about big plays. They had control and they ended up running. The play action off the run game and just having to do too much to sell out even when we’re playing a run defense on the long play there at the end Ceyair (Wright) comes off and tries to make a tackle on the quarterback and then they have an explosive play. I have to take some time to really delve into it because, as I said, I thought we played really well last week and I thought we played really well today. Certainly the kickoff return and the field position tilted in the first half against us. At one point they had 10 points and they had nine plays or something like that. I said calm down just keep playing. Anything I say right now feels like an excuse. I look out there and see a bunch of young players and I just keep saying get off and make a play, you need a sac fumble. Defense is about big hits, picking balls off, sac fumbles, scoop and scores, and all those things, and we’re just not getting those versus the higher quality opponents. This is a team that had a really good plan and they just made plays and we just didn’t quite make the plays. I feel like we defended the traditional run way better at times today and we have, and then their quarterback made some plays that really hurt us. When we have a third down they run a Q draw, score, we have them in the redzone, score.” 

On receivers being competitive today
“I didn’t notice anything, you guys might see things on TV that I didn’t see. I thought on Emmett’s (Johnson) run there were huge, huge, huge blocks. There were just a couple miscommunications. There was a couple times we’re running option routes, guy sits it down. I had no concerns with effort or anything like that. What I did see were three or four times we had a 50/50 ball and unfortunately we didn’t come down with it, their kid even at the end made a great catch for it. I think our receivers have played ball all year. You know we get into the game, we got a young quarterback he pulls his hamstring and kind of limited maybe some of their opportunities and also Emmett (Johnson) on a disappointing day, that was an amazing effort by him. That is something I'll remember for a long time. Just how hard he played and how well he played.”